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Moorehead named top local educator
Naudia Moorehead, a third-grade teacher at East Elementary School, will represent the Mountain Home School District at the state level for the 2010 Teacher of the Year award.
Moorehead was selected from the top ten teachers, chosen by their peers, from throughout the district.
Moorehead said she was "extremely honored to be nominated," for the award.
Born and raised on Guam, she spent her first two years of teaching there. The last seven years she has taught in the Mountain Home School District at Liberty Elementary, MHAFB Primary and East Elementary. Last year she earned her master's degree, focusing on integrating the arts in instruction.
She has served on a number of committees in the district, including Response to Intervention, Safe and Drug Free Schools, Reading Adoption and the Professional Learning Community committee.
She also has served as a mentor to new third-grade teachers in the district and has taught Extended School Year Summer School and the after school Language Usage Study Time program.
The other top ten teachers that were in the running for the honor were:
* Robbie Belk, a sixth-grade language arts instructor at Hacker Middle School. Belk has 18 years of teaching experience and was named the district's Outstanding Educator in 2003 and 2005.
She is a member of the HMS Professional Development Team and the HMS Retention Team.
She also serves on the Mountain Home Education Association Scholarship Committee and is both the PTT liaison and the Box Tops for Educators coordinator.
* Mellissa Casey, a special education instructor at Mountain Home Junior High School, has nine years of teaching experience. She also holds a Masters of Education with a focus in reading, is a member of the junior high English Department and serves as an eighth-grade advisor.
* Deb Gorman, a seventh-grade math teacher, has been teaching for 21 years. She has been nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She is a member of the District Improvement Team, the Hacker Improvement Team and the District Professional Learning Community Team.
* Kathi Holland, a fourth-grade teacher at North Elementary, began teaching there in 1994. She took five years off to help raise her five children, returning to teaching initially in Glenns Ferry for a year before coming "home" to North Elementary.
She has served on a number of committees "anywhere I am needed," she said.
This is the second time she has been nominated for the honor.
* Kerri Raines teaches K-2 special education at the base Primary School. She serves on the Respond to Intervention, Multi-Disciplinary Team, Retention and Professional Development committees, the last of which she chairs.
Two years ago she started the HeadSprout reading program as a reading intervention for struggling readers. She conducts that program during lunch and after school three times a week. During the last four years she also has coordinated the K-3 Extended School Year program. She currently is completing her dissertation for her educational doctorate degree.
In 2008 she was named as the early childhood educator of the year and was a teacher grant winner for Capital Federal Credit Union.
* Brenda Raub, the high school art instructor, has been teaching for ten years. She holds a master's degree from the University of Idaho.
Even though she teaches art at the high school "she has made it her personal mission to create more art opportunities for all ages in her community." She created the Mountain Home Art Camp to teach children in the elementary schools and teaches workshops for adults at The Brown Wrapper. The art club that she created and advises at the high school is the largest club in the school.
* Deb Shrum, a health teacher at Mountain Home High School, has been teaching for 32 years.
She has devoted much of her "out of class" time to coaching. She has coached high school track and girls basketball, as well as girls and boys basketball, track and volleyball at the junior high. She has previously been named as the JV Girls Track Coach of the Year and the 4A District Girls Basketball Coach of the Year, as well as serving as the Senior All Stars Girls Basketball Coach.
She is a member of the Professional Learning Community team for the district and is a member of the National Education Association, the Idaho Education Association and the Mountain Home Education Association.
* Alicia Sievers, a first-grade teacher at West Elementary School, has taught first grade for 13 years. She holds a master's degree and is active on a number of school committees.
But what she is most proud of are her students. "Although I have the students for only one year, I continue to keep in contact with many by attending Respond to Intervention events, church activities, concerts and have had former students return as TAs (teaching assistants)."
* Jim Hoye, was nominated but asked not to be selected, as he is retiring this year. Hoye is an eighth-grade science teacher.
"In recognition of his commitment to education his nomination to the Top Ten Educators (in the district) remains on the ballot" but without a voting square the district said.